Digital printing vs Screen printing

Posted byneedtshirtsnow07/23/20167 Comment(s)

Digital printing vs Screen printing

Most of the time Digital Printing is referring to methods of printing that a digital image is printed using an inkjet or laser printer. In the t-shirt world, it is usually referring to DTG Printing, Sublimation, and Vinyl etc.

Screen Printing is one of the oldest forms of printing on clothing. Screen printing uses a mesh to force ink through a screen onto your apparel.

Artwork

Digital printing on clothing can be more cost effective when ordering a low quantity of items. Digital Printing is also capable of printing high-resolution Detailed artwork. Digital printing works best when printing in full color.

Screen printing is more cost effective when ordering high quantities. It is also the better method to choose for 1 color images. The reason I say this is because of speed. Vinyl also produces some of the best looking 1 color graphics because there is no ink involved.

Speed

Digital printing methods such as Dtg can take a shirt and your digital graphic and print it in less than 30 seconds. In real time 3 minutes. That is because we will pretreat the shirt load the image in our rip software and load the shirt in the printer. The downfall is if there is a need of 500 shirts, it will take the same amount of time to print each shirt.

Screen Printing will need to set up a screen. This process alone can take around 45 minutes. After the screen is set up. Depending on the press, most will be able to print over 500 shirts per hour. Making it faster than digital printing on larger orders.

Quality

Quality is equal among screen printing and digital printing if the methods are done correctly. When done incorrectly Screen printing can crack and come off. Digital Printing will fade or if using vinyl incorrectly come off.

Price

When ordering digital printing the Price per shirt will generally stay the same. The reason is because it will take you the same amount of time regardless of how many shirts you are purchasing. Screen printing is different. The prices go down the more shirts you purchase because it will take a shorter amount of time to print each shirt.

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7 Comment(s)

I have a band and we're planning on getting some shirts made. There's only one color on the shirts and we're planning on making a lot of shirts. Based off what you said, screen printing is the better choice for large quantities with low colors, so I'll go with screen printing.

I just wanted to thank you for helping me understand more about some of the differences between screen printing and digital printing. It's interesting that, even though screen printing could take up some time to set up, it can eventually be faster than digital printing. I'm actually really curious to be able to see these different kinds of printing methods in action, so that I can visually see and compare the differences between them.

I've been designing shirts and sweaters recently and I was wondering if digital image printing is a good option. Aside from the method being capable of printing high-resolution artwork, you mentioned that it can be done in less than 30seconds! That's just amazing!